Meridith E., NJ

My mother has small cell lung cancer. She was diagnosed with it in April of 2015. She smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for over 40 years of her life. For years, my brothers and I tried to get her to stop smoking. She would get so angry at me that she would hang the phone up or just end the conversation. My mother isn't a bad person, she was just heavily addicted to smoking and didn't want to deal with the thought of stopping. Well, it is July now and my mother's condition is deteriorating rapidly. This is an exceptionally vicious kind of cancer. It has attacked and degraded her both physically and psychologically. I feel as though I have already lost my mother. She hasn't truly been herself in months. The pain inflicted on the loved ones of those with this horrible disease is beyond terrible. I worry about my own health because I was exposed to second hand smoke for 25 years of my life. Please stop smoking! Do it for yourself and your loved ones!